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Chickens gather and lay eggs in an organic hen house at Sunrise Farms in Petaluma. No eggs produced in California have been recalled because the salmonella scare. Photo: Paul Chinn/The Chronicle

While foie gras serving restaurants Chez TJ and Presidio Social Club saw a handful of protestors over the past few days, bigger food law events have been unfolding in Washington.

The Chronicle’s Carolyn Lochhead reported in Saturday’s paper on a new amendment to the Farm Bill. Last week, a late night vote in the House Agriculture Committee on an amendment would deny individual states the ability to regulate any farm product. Not only would this overturn the new foie gras ban in California, it would also potentially overturn thousands of animal welfare, food safety and environmental laws related to any farm product in all 50 states, like California’s high-profile (and voter-approved) law that hens must have cages large enough to let them spread their wings.

Lochhead reports from DC:

The amendment by Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, was passed late Wednesday along with the new five-year farm bill during a marathon committee debate …

… “There’s a contingent out there, the pork and beef people, and it’s primarily the pork people, who are adamantly opposed to any kind of animal welfare legislation,” said Arnie Riebli, a Petaluma egg farmer and president of the Association of California Egg Farmers who supports California’s hen law, which takes effect in 2015.

Riebli said pork producers fear California’s hen law will lead to bans on gestation crates that tightly confine pregnant sows. Minnesota’s Collin Peterson, the top Democrat on the committee, said California’s farm rules are “driving us crazy, because these things come to our states … and we don’t want them.”

For what it’s worth, the issue of interstate commerce is also one of the points of contention in the foie gras lawsuit filed earlier this month.

Without getting too deep into politics on this here food blog, many are alreadyupset with this new amendment. The entire Farm Bill, including this new amendment, will now go to the house floor, where it’s possible the amendment could be tweaked or eliminated. That could also happen in a house/senate conference committee. Stay tuned. Read the whole article here.